Auction

The next door property with the 'interesting collections' has had an auction - What a lot of stuff.

Lots of people bidding, some of whom bought boxes of complete rubbish, I wonder what they do with it?

All sorts of hardware, some tools still unopened in their origional packaging, plus 1000's of meters of native timber went under the hammer at a fraction of their value, a friend bought a stack of Rimu and found out after paying $2000 dollars for it had bought 5000 lineal meters which is currently selling, if you can get it at $18 per meter.

I must admit there was a large ammount of tempting items, but my resolve held and I only bid for the things that I knew we could use/need.

All except 1 thing - a small hand printing press!! (made in London about 1890) it needs a little restoration but will make a very interesting 'Object'

We bought a couple of big stained glass windows that will go nicely in stage 2, plus a big pile of bricks, at a bargain price, we now have enough for a brick wall and a pizza/bread oven, all we need to do is build it...

The place was a complete mess, all a bit sad...

The good bit, is his long suffering wife is really happy to be moving away to a nice new house, so he wont have the room, or the reason to start collecting building equipment or materials ever again (maybe).

'Jungle' Rocks

I spent most of Saturday moving the rocks that our neighbour offered me from his slightly 'overgrown' section to the other side of the fence.

The plan is build a low stone wall at the end of our proposed courtyard alongside stage 2 of our house build.

They were so heavy the only way I could lift them was to break some of them up with a sledge hammer, sounds easy but most of them needed some very serious PERSUASION to break, what a job.

It's still not finished, still a lot of rocks to go, maybe tomorrow.

We still need to move them to the other side of the section and that's about 100m away as the crow flies.

Another little challenge.

The Learning Curve

Once again it's back at the computer trying to finish off the plans for the 2nd stage of the build.
The trouble is it's been 5 months since I used my CAD programme and the upgraded version that I'm now using is a bit different, so not only do I have to remember how to use it, I have to cope with a bunch of new features. My old brain is having to work overtime.

When I can find the 3D drawing I created on Sketchup I will publish a picture of the 'Grand Design'.

This is a great program if you want to draw stuff in 3D .WARNING it can be very addictive, now owed by Google, and the non professional version is free. I think they even have a Apple version...

Almost There

Wherever there is...

We have almost completed the barn.

The kitchen is working well if a little small and without an oven, we have to use the BBQ for the oven stuff, it works quite well, a bit difficult to control the temperature which goes to warp speed within a few minutes, making a danger of turning a culinary delight into a black crisp if you don't keep a close watch.

The barn has turned out well, this is where we will 'rough it' for the next year.

By then we will have finished the house (stage 2) this is a 'builders promise'

Now we have only a few minor things to do, the stair banister, polyurethane the stairs and finish the dressing room (our huge walk in wardrobe)

(pics dinning area and kitchen/laundry)

On The Move

What a lot has happened in the last few weeks. Our next door neighbours are on the move, even the reclusive couple that live in the big unfinished villa are going. (pic)

They have been working on this project for over 35 years!

So what is going to happen to all the junk he has collected, old farm implements, piles of AMCO barrier that he must have picked up from the road side. the whole place has turned into a jungle of overgrown shrubs that now cover all sorts of demolition timber and stuff that he has stacked away for future use...

Also the Big house directly behind us has sold.

Maybe someone is telling us something.

Goldberg/Robinson

For those people that don't know who Rube Goldberg (American) is I have supplied a reference from Wikipedia, also included is Heath Robinson who did similar drawings (English)
Reuben Garret Lucius Goldberg (July 4, 1883 - December 7, 1970) was an American cartoonist who received a 1948 Pulitzer Prize for his political cartooning. He is best known for his series of popular cartoons depicting Rube Goldberg machines, complex devices that perform simple tasks in indirect, convoluted ways.
William Heath Robinson (May 31, 1872 – September 13, 1944) was an English cartoonist and illustrator, who signed himself W. Heath Robinson. He is best known for drawings of eccentric machines and "Heath Robinson" has entered the language as a description of any unnecessarily complex and implausible contraption

Rube Goldberg to the Rescue

We had some friends around for dinner, and as we don't have a oven, the BBQ was called into action.

The heavens opened up and the rain came down in such quantities that a lake formed around the barn, mostly caused by the fact that the downpipes have not been connected.

So with water pouring down I constructed a down pipe out of some irrigation pipe, duck tape, wood clamp and a length of clothes line, this was all done in the dark with lots of water falling on my head and at height!

The only best thing was it was not cold - it worked! still had to walk over planks to get to the BBQ.

The result, dinner was cooked and delivered on time, and it's still working...

Mushrooms Mushrooms

It's been raining down in great quantities but it has still been nice and warm, and that means field mushrooms - lots.

They taste fantastic, at least 10 times more flavour than the commercially grown variety. it only lasts a few days, so you have to eat lots...

The Worst Job!

I knew when we started this build, the two jobs that I didn't want to do was the roof, with its associated height challenges (me!) and the plastering of the drywall.

Well we resolved number 1, by getting a contractor to put the roof on but the plastering was done by ourselves - its not the actual plastering, or the cleaning up (I'm not the neatest person and tend to work in a mess) it's the preparation prior to painting.

Sanding! dusty, hot and lots of superfine dust, even though we had bought a drywall sanding machine, it gets everywhere.

After 10 minutes of sanding you end up looking like a white rat, complete with red eyes.

If you are living in the same area everything gets covered by a coating of fine dust, that takes days of cleaning to get rid of.

We have decided that we will resist the temptation in the 2nd stage to move in until it's completely finished. -

Getting Back To Normal

Life has moved from camping in a half finished shed to living in a house/barn.

The electrician has finished (well almost) the security system has a software bug that when it tries to ring my cellphone, it ignores my answer - result -very loud and lots of blue flashing lights!

The gallery lighting system is great, it now looks even better with more lights hanging off the wires.

This will be perfect when it's a dedicated gallery space, I know it's a bit off an indulgence but as I have been telling Mrs DIY it will earn us some money, one day, I hope...